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Working With 2 ISPs For Home Networking?
An anonymous reader writes "This is, I think, a simple question — but one which I can't get the answer to.
As a typical, but perhaps high-demand home user I would like to use 2 separate ISPs. ADSL is pretty cheap nowadays, and 2 x ADSL seems a better value than one fast one — especially in terms of reliability.
If one breaks, at least the other will work.
Using an old box as a router/firewall, how can I configure a system to use two completely separate ISPs in a sensible manner?
Ideally, I'd like the load of my browsing to be balanced, but at the minimum, I'd want some kind of 'fail-over.' If I leave torrents running over night, I'd like the router to use whichever connection doesn't block the traffic — and preferably for it to reset the errant connection.
Ideas?"
I produce a system that can do this. It's called Broadbond.
You can bond several ADSL lines, even from independent providers, and it will deliver the combined upstream and downstream bandwidth of the two. All traffic is load balanced across the two lines and can also be transparently compressed. The throughput of the lines is automatically measured to determine the optimal load balancing. Differences in latency on the two lines are compensated for.
The catch (there's always a catch!) is that you need to have a partnering system co-located with an ISP to handle the far end of the tunnel -- although I can also provide this if you would prefer.
The system is available as a software package that you can license to run on Linux or OpenBSD and also pre-installed and pre-configured on a couple of small embedded Linux boxes -- very low power (under 5W), no moving parts, good for up to 90Mbit/sec.
I bond two ADSL lines to my office, 4.4Mbit and 9.6Mbit, and I get around 13.5Mbit on file transfers.
If you're interested, contact me (details on the broadbond.org web page).
You know, this is something I haven't been able to figure out. I live in Japan where we are hit by strong earthquakes at least a month, and typhoons (like hurricanes), thunderstorms, minor flooding, etc. almost every day during the rainy season. And no I don't live in central Tokyo, I live in the middle of a farming town and have to walk through flooded rice paddies to get from my apartment to the station. But my power and internet have NEVER gone out once in the 6 years I've lived here. We don't have anything special... the power and phone run on overhead lines on metal poles just like most places in the US.
Meanwhile, at my mom's house in the DC Metro area, USA, the power & internet go out every time there is anything more than a gentle breeze. What's going on?